


Annabel Lee

by acosmist_t



Series: Draco Malfoy One Shots [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Battle of Hogwarts, Character Death, Death, F/M, Reader-Insert, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:41:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28122516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acosmist_t/pseuds/acosmist_t
Summary: Based on the poem Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe; Sometimes even love isn’t enough to fight death, but sometimes, even love can push past the binds of the mortal plane.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Reader
Series: Draco Malfoy One Shots [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020781
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Annabel Lee

**Author's Note:**

> Word Count: 2k
> 
> Warnings: just in battle, cursing, angst, major character death, edgar allan poe <3
> 
> a/n: i was actually super excited for this one, but i lowkey disappointed myself. it was supposed to be a drabble but then it got too long but it’s also too short so oops. Annabel Lee literally invokes the most guttural sort of pain out of me and i thought you guys should feel the same :) theres def typos that i havent found yet

**It was many and many a year ago,**

**In a kingdom by the sea,**

**That a maiden there lived whom you may know**

**By the name of Annabel Lee;**

**And this maiden she lived with no other thought**

**Than to love and be loved by me.**

  
  


Seven years had he loved you—had he cherished you. From the beginning of time until the very end, did Draco Malfoy love you.

“Stay behind me,” he warned as you ran through the broken-down corridors of the one place you’d always been able to call home.

Hogwarts had been turned to rubble and horror. There was too much death, too much destruction, that it was barely recognizable. Juxtaposed to the grand castle you were met with for the first time all those years ago, your current reality was a far cry from the truth. It reminded you a bit of a fallen kingdom.

There was devastation surrounding you, drowning you. There was no escape and no way out. The battle waged on, and that meant you did too.

“Draco, please...slow down.” You couldn’t get air down quick enough and had to stop inside a deserted classroom just to catch your breath. Draco paused with you, standing in front of you and in the path of the door just in case. But you couldn’t imagine him sacrificing himself for you—your brain didn’t permit it. _You_ could never permit it.

“We don’t have much time, love,” he murmured, eyes only watching the door for movement.

You couldn’t breathe. Your heart was running miles in your throat and more than once did the inclination to empty the meager scraps of your stomach hit you. Your lungs could only take in so much air, and even then, you would choke on it.

You heard the door smash before you saw it. Chips and pieces flew everywhere, and you had barely drawn your wand when you heard Draco cry, “ _Stupefy_.”

The Death Eater that had entered froze and fell to the ground. You sighed heavily, just as Draco spun to grab your hand and pull you back to the corridor. There were spells flying in all directions, and your thighs burned as you pushed and pushed to go faster. But to where, you didn’t know.

You focused on the painful grip of his hand in yours and the platinum hair that served as a beacon. It was guiding you to something—something bright and powerful.

  
  


**_I_ ** **was a child and** **_she_ ** **was a child,**

**In this kingdom by the sea;**

**But we loved with a love that was more than love—**

**I and my Annabel Lee—**

**With a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven**

**Coveted her and me.**

  
  


You had grown up with myths. With stories. There was so much in this world that you believed in.

You believed in fate and destiny and angels and demons. You believed the world ticked by at a pace that brought everyone a little bit closer to a grand scheme. Your favorite legend to hear was one about the very school you attended.

It was bleak and dark, but still the most fascinating. The older students always spoke of a superstition about the portraits on the wall. They said that every time a frame comes loose and hangs lopsided on the wall, another lost soul begins to roam the earth.

A red curse flew towards you, and you barely dove out of the way in time. You didn’t register where it had gone, too busy shooting the first hex you could think of towards the same masked Death Eater. It appears luck was on your side, as the spell hit him on the first try. Draco had just finished disarming his own opponent when you noticed the crumbling.

It started low on the wall, where the curse had gone instead of hitting you. You could only watch in disbelief as the cracks climbed up the wall, all the way to the large arches of the corridor. Just in time, your hand reached back for Draco’s, and you yanked him out of the way of the falling ceiling.

As stone met stone and dust rose, you lost your grip on him, all but flying yards away from your previous spot. The debris made it near impossible to see, but you struggled to your feet and began feeling your way through the stone anyway, searching for signs of life.

“Draco?” you called out, denial grabbing onto you. 

Did you get him out in time? Was he still there?

“Draco?” you yelled again, this time with your voice edged in nervousness. You kept calling, kept searching, until finally:

“Y/N?”

His voice nearly brought you to tears, and you fought through them to ask, “Where are you? Do you have your wand?”

He didn’t respond for a moment. A small red flare shot up, and you ran towards it. Your eyes burned from all the dust and crumbled stone, but that didn’t stop you until your arms were wrapped tightly around him.

“Don’t do that ever again,” Draco whispered in your ear, and you could feel his body shaking in adrenaline, in fear, in desperation.

“I won’t. I promise.”

  
  


**And this was the reason that, long ago,**

**In this kingdom by the sea,**

**A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling**

**My beautiful Annabel Lee;**

**So that her highborn kinsman came**

**And bore her away from me,**

**To shut her up in a sepulchre**

**In this kingdom by the sea.**

  
  


There were Death Eaters and werewolves and Dementors everywhere.

“Don’t go too far,” Draco shouted to you, and you could only nod while shooting as many spells that you knew at the enemies surrounding you.

You ran through corridors, never leaving Draco out of your line of sight, but still trying to get as many opponents away from him. Call you self-sacrificial, but you couldn’t stand the thought of him being injured. His head practically had a bounty on it, and there wasn’t a chance you would let it be fulfilled.

It was when you saw him dueling his aunt that you ran over. You could’ve laughed at the irony of the location: it was right by the alcove you and Draco had spent so long hiding in during secret rendezvous. Right by the painting of the sailor standing on the shore of the sea crashing violently into the sharp rocks.

You stopped beside him, wand ready to stand in for whatever vulnerability he may show. He was refusing to send offensive spells, only defensive, and you knew that it was a strategy that would be a fatal mistake. So, you shot your own dark curses. The things you had avoided the whole time, you used them now.

“What’s this?” Bellatrix laughed, a cruel delight on her face. “Does my nephew have a lover?”

“No, she’s no one,” Draco ground out, shifting in front of you slightly. “No one at all.”

Bellatrix took a step forward, eyeing you dangerously. “Are you sure?” She sent hexes your way in rapid succession, and Draco barely had time to deflect them, your wand serving as a second line of defense.

That’s when you realized your mistake. His aunt wouldn’t have hurt him—not fatally, at least. You, on the other hand…

But the next curse didn’t come from Bellatrix. No, you had seen the incoming Death Eater just in time, and you didn’t even get to cast a curse before a green light shot towards both of you. You shoved Draco forward and threw yourself backward, the curse hitting the spot where Draco had just been standing.

Bellatrix didn’t do anything—she just stood there, an odd sort of amusement on her face. Almost as if she was curious as to how far your sacrifice would go. Draco was watching her wand, uncaring of the newest enemy that joined you in the corridor. He didn’t see the next curse as it came.

A green light aiming straight for him.

And you didn’t think as you ran straight toward it.

  
  


**The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,**

**Went envying her and me—**

**Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,**

**In this kingdom by the sea)**

**That the wind came out of the cloud by night,**

**Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.**

  
  


Draco released an inhumane sound when you pushed him out of the way, something low and guttural and that would’ve broken your heart if you had not already been filled with an incomprehensible sort of pain.

“ _NO!_ ” he yelled—he _screamed_. The Killing Curse had hit you square in the chest, and you felt every nerve set on fire, every muscle spasm, as the strength of it—the fatality—crashed into you.

But then, it was gone. You never felt quite so light. All your problems floated away as a pair of shattered grey eyes filled your vision. You were able to reach a hand up and gently brushed the tears that fell, but you felt yourself losing your grip on life.

“Don’t go. _Don’t fucking go_.” He was shouting. Crying. Breaking.

And so were you. You tried to pound against the darkness, to fight it. But your limbs suddenly felt heavy, and all you could do was yell with him.

 _Not yet. Not so soon. Please, we were supposed to have more time_.

Because you were. Because you had planned an entire lifetime together. It was one where the two of you lived peacefully and happily in a cottage by the sea. You would be greeted by the salted air every morning and fall asleep to the sounds of waves lapping against the shoreline every night.

“I’m sorry,” Draco was sobbing and begging whoever would listen. But he silenced as you managed a handful more words.

“I love you,” you whispered, feeling yourself sink and float at the same time, “not even death shall part us.”

He repeated in a broken whisper, “Not even death. I love you.”

And with that, the world turned black.

  
  


**But our love it was stronger by far than the love**

**Of those who were older than we—**

**Of many far wiser than we—**

**And neither the angels in Heaven above,**

**Nor the demons down under the sea**

**Can ever dissever my soul from the soul**

**Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:**

  
  


He couldn’t do anything but stay there, cradling your body. He ignored Bellatrix’s words, her satisfaction. She had left soon after, dragging the Death Eater who had taken you from him with her.

All he did was sit on the floor, your corpse in his arms, and promised to anyone who listened that he would be better. That he would do anything to have you back with him, would become purely good if it meant you could live.

But you never moved, never even shifted. Your body was frozen in his arms and Draco didn’t think he could handle it. It was a pain he had never known.

He looked towards the nearest, shattered window to see the moon and the stars begin to come out. And for the oddest, most agonizing reason, they reminded him of you. Your beauty, your love, your sacrifice.

Draco saw you in everything around him. Every angle, every color, every sight. He knew your souls could not be parted so easily. A love like yours could never be bound by the plane of life—no, it stretched beyond that.

Beyond death.

  
  


**For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams**

**Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;**

**And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes**

**Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;**

**And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side**

**Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,**

**In her sepulchre there by the sea,**

**In her tomb by the sounding sea.**

  
  


It was there that Draco sat until he had been forced to move. But he would’ve stayed longer—would’ve stayed for all of eternity with you.

Right before he had left, did he notice the painting of the sailor by the pounding sea.

And right before he had left, did he notice that a single side had come loose, leaving it to hang lopsided on the wall.


End file.
